Holy Family invites public to Klobase Festival

Eighty-five years of Czech farming heritage will be celebrated during the annual Klobase Festival and Barbecue on Sunday at Luna County Courthouse Park.

A Slavic migration came to West Texas at the turn of the 19th century in search of fruitful farmland and a better life in America.

The Czechs quickly spread to southwestern New Mexico and found a bountiful yield near the boot heel corner of the state.

Many of the families who took root in Deming and Luna County are still planted in the area, with ancestral names such as Smrkovsky, Marcak, Kostelnik and Brdecko, commonplace.

Each autumn, the Czech community and Holy Family Catholic Church celebrate the end of the harvest season and enjoy a bit of its homeland by serving the traditional Klobase sausage and beef brisket barbecue.

The festival served two purposes. It brought the community together to share in the prosperity of the farmlands, but it also brought in support for Holy Family Catholic Church. The church has benefited from the sale of Klobase and barbecue plates and expanded its services to better serve the congregation and the community.

The pride of the church is the parish center and Fruit of the Vine Pre-School. The preschool has prepared thousands of 4- and 5-year-olds for kindergarten and the parish center has become a meeting and gathering place for community events and functions.

Parishioners spent the week prior to the festival preparing hundreds of pounds of sides and the special casing of the Klobase sausage, along with the smoking of the beef brisket.

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Serving is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Luna County Courthouse Park pavilion and the event is followed by bingo games from noon to 5 p.m. Raffle tickets will be sold for $1 each for a chance to win up to $300. Also, ticket stubs will be entered into a drawing for two $50 prizes. Entrants must be present to win. Hourly prizes will be given away. Klobase participants are encouraged to bring lawn chairs.

There will also be activities for children.

One of the popular venues at the park is the dessert tent. Tasty, homemade desserts are available for purchase.

Tickets for the Klobase and barbecue plates are $8 each and can be purchased at the Holy Family Church Administrative office at the corner of Ash and Copper. Tickets are also available from any Holy Family parishioner.